Serendipity Literary Agency is hosting their annual writer’s Young Adult Discovery Competition. If writers are having trouble pitching ideas, no worries with this contest because they won’t even need a query! Seriously, only the first 250 words will be needed to submit.

YA literary agent Regina Brooks and her team will read all of the entries and determine the top 20 submissions. (There will be great prizes for the top winners!) These submissions will then be read by editors from many of the major publishing houses. Past judges include editors from Scholastic, Random House/Penguin, Little Brown, Candlewick, Bloomsbury, Simon and Schuster, JIMMY Patterson Books, and Abram Books. Judges will whittle the top 20 down to five winners, including a Grand Prize Winner.

Submissions open on November 1, 2018 at 12:01am (ET) and close on November 30, 2018 at 12:59pm (ET). Only one entry per person with a $15 entry fee. The contest is open to U.S. and Canada residents only.

For complete guidelines and submission rules, or to watch for their upcoming post about prizes, go here. As always, good luck!

Serendipity Literary Agency is hosting the eighth annual Young Adult Novel Discovery Competition. If writers are having trouble pitching ideas, no worries with this contest because they won’t even need a query! Seriously, only the first 250 words will be needed to submit.

YA literary agent Regina Brooks and her team will read all of the entries and determine the top 20 submissions. (There will be great prizes for the top winners!) These submissions will then be read by editors from many of the major publishing houses. Past judges include editors from Scholastic, Random House/Penguin, Little Brown, Candlewick, Bloomsbury, Simon and Schuster, JIMMY Patterson Books, and Abram Books. Judges will whittle the top 20 down to five winners, including a Grand Prize Winner.

Submissions open on November 1, 2017 at 12:01am (ET) and close on November 30, 2017 at 12:59pm (ET). Only one entry per person with a $15 entry fee. The contest is open to U.S. and Canada residents only.

For complete guidelines and submission rules, or to watch for their upcoming post about prizes, go here. As always, good luck!

It’s getting close to Halloween, which means Nightmare On Query Street is soon! But don’t let the title fool you into thinking you’re manuscript won’t qualify. The title is more about when the contest takes place. You can enter any age category or genre, excluding picture books and erotica.

The submission window opens at 4:00 pm (EST) on October 13th. All entries sent before this time will be deleted. For this years contest, there are 24 agents lined up! TWENTY FOUR! How awesome is that? But you’d better be on your toes if you want to submit. They will close submissions when they reach 250 entries or in two hours, whichever is first.

Michelle, Mike, and Laura will make 13 picks each. Then a few mentors they’ve selected will help the authors hone their entries before the agent round. Here are all the dates for the event:

Submission Window Opens: October 13th 4:00 pm EST

Final Picks are Announced: October 20th

Mentors Go to Work: October 21th – 26th

Revised Entries Due Back: October 26th at 11:59 pm EST

Agent round: October 30th – 31th

Some rules to take note of:

You are not eligible if you’ve been in an agent round in the last six months. (This does not include open twitter pitches.)

You can enter if you have a different manuscript to enter than previous agent round you were in.

Only ONE entry per person. (No using multiple emails or pen names!)

You’ll need to send you query and first 250 words, along with a short paragraph (no more than 100 words) answering this question: What is your main character’s most stressful relationship? Who really makes them sweat?

For complete details and submission formatting, go here. As always, good luck!

With the boom of digital publishing, it’s no wonder conferences are covering the topic. After all, as much as I love holding a book, I download a LOT of books to my Kindle app to read and keep up with market trends. As publishing evolves, so has Digital Book World (a conference for anyone in publishing). They say they will now be known as simply DBW. And that’s not all they’ve changed for the conference January 17-19, 2017:

With over two hundred publishers and agencies in attendance, there are too many to name! For a complete list of those currently registered, go here. And as for the speakers list, go here. You won’t be disappointed! So be sure to register to attend and make your reservations at the New York Hilton Midtown.

Serendipity Literary Agency in conjunction with Sourcebooks Inc. is hosting their seventh annual Young Adult Novel Discovery Competition. If you’ve had trouble pitching your ideas in the past, no worries with this contest. You won’t even need a query!

YA literary agent Regina Brooks and her team will read all of the entries and determine the top 20 submissions. (There are supposed to be great prizes for the top winners!) These submissions will then be read by editors from many of the major publishing houses. Past judges include editors from Scholastic, Random House/Penguin, Little, Brown, Candlewick, Bloomsbury, Simon and Schuster, and Abram Books. Judges will whittle the top 20 down to five winners, including a Grand Prize Winner.

Submissions open on November 1, 2016 at 12:01am (ET) and close on November 30, 2016 at 12:59pm (ET). Only one entry per person with a $15 entry fee. The contest is open to U.S. and Canada residents only.

For complete guidelines and submission rules, or to watch for their upcoming post about prizes, go here.

The creator of Manuscript Wish List, Jessica Sinsheimer, now brings her adoring fans The Manuscript Academy. How amazeballs is this? The website proclaims it had the writer’s need, comfort, and budget in mind when creating the academy. And oh, how true! A writer can watch classes, panels, and ask questions in the forums from the coziness of their home. Hooray, no traveling!